The discipline of English at UTSC offers programs in literature, creative writing, and film. Students of literature explore the rich variety of texts (including fiction, nonfiction, drama, poetry, but also the graphic novel or the narrative video game) in courses that range across centuries and across the globe. Film courses examine films, also across historical and cultural contexts. Creative writing students learn to express themselves in genres ranging from fiction to non-fiction, poetry, and screenplays. Our curriculum encourages students to think and write critically about the development and significance of the forms that writers and filmmakers work in, which are ways of seeing and expressing experience, and about the relationship between art and the world. The English programs at UTSC give students the tools to engage with the ways people have thought about, written about, and seen the world around them and, in so doing, to act in our own time through critical language and argument.
Students are advised to check the prerequisites for C- and D-level courses when planning their individual programs, and to consult with the Program Supervisor before taking courses on other campuses. Students planning to pursue graduate studies in English are advised to include ENGC15H3 within their program (it is required for the English Specialist) and to consider enrolling in ENGD98Y3, an intensive capstone seminar that provides qualified students with the opportunity to develop a senior essay project under the supervision of a faculty member in English. The Program Supervisor is available by appointment to advise students selecting courses with graduate study in mind.
The Major in Creative Writing offers students the opportunity to deepen their development as literary artists, and to gain a comprehensive historical and critical understanding of literary and creative practice. Benefiting from workshop-based courses and feedback from award-winning faculty and visiting writers, as well as from peer review, students will produce original work in a range of genres, encompassing poetry, fiction, non-fiction, screenwriting, and comics. Students will graduate with the confidence and tools they need to continue developing as writers. They will also emerge from this program with the practical knowledge and experience to professionalize their creative skills into fields as diverse as publishing, editing, communications, public relations, marketing, and advertising.
